Jane Lister Reis
North Seattle Community College
“Speaking of Success”
Essay #3NO TITLE[CH1]?

Definition of Success[CH2]

It is 2013 – three years since twenty-seven of us (students and teachers) were in a class together exploring what success meant to each of us through writing, reading and speaking. As I look back, I see that this class was pivotal for my learning (I hope also for the students) because it helped me more clearly define success as well as clarify my goals. In that moment in time, I too became a student in that class – a learner just like everyone else.

Looking back on my time as a faculty member at North Seattle Community College, I think that students assume that teachers are teachers and students are students and never do those roles blur allowing teachers to become learners too (or for that matter for students to become teachers). But that is not true. Often, and in particular in that class in 2010, a great question, or a perplexing problem posed can push teachers beyond their own boundaries of knowledge and create opportunity for new learning experiences and new knowledge. In the class of 2010, the theme of success provided me with such an opportunity to learn. This learning began at the beginning of the quarter as week after week we got to know each as we read and discussed essays, talked in small groups, wrote essays and gave speeches. But the defining moment for me came when I gave my speech about success. Creating this speech for my students forced me to think beyond my “live day to day” philosophy and to examine more clearly the dreams that lay yet unexpressed in my heart and to bring more clearly into focus the steps I needed to take if I were to birth and nurture these dreams into reality.

I believe because of this class that I now define success somewhat differently. I’ve always defined success as a means for me to live my happiness in ways that benefit the common good. But perhaps what’s changed is my ability to define success in ways that have shifted from the philosophical to the practical – from the abstract to the concrete. Success for me now includes specific goals and defined pathways I have to take if I am to achieve my dreams as I stated publicly in class on that day in March at North Seattle Community College.

In my speech I told the class that I had retired in 2013 and was now working full time as an educational consultant and director of a non-profit organization called A Center for Transformative Learning. As an educational consultant, I facilitate “conversations of change” in organizations across the country. As director of a non-profit, I work with other educators in articulating and creating curriculum that supports personal and organizational change. My life is full and I am grateful that I have been able to create such a meaningful life of serve which also allows me time to spend with my family and with others.

Methods Used[CH3]:

What supporting steps did I take to achieve this dream? This support came books, the Internet, and from people:

  • I started this investigative process by first rereading a book that Carol Hamilton and I had used in an integrated class many years ago called What Color Is My Parachute? by Richard Nelson Bolles. From this best-selling book, I was reminded that one’s career equals occupation plus field. In other words, according to Bolles you must define both your occupation (e.g. teacher and consultant) and your field (e.g. higher education) if you want to be successful in a job hunt (66[CH4]). The second step according to Bolles is that you must “decide just exactly what you have to offer to the world. This involves identifying your gifts, or talents – which is to say, your favorite skills, in order of priority or important to you” (67). This too was an important rediscovery for me (since I had originally read the book in 2002). I spent quite a bit of time thinking about talent or gifts I thought I had and in what order of priority. Here’s the list I came up with:
  • Writing (Creating)
  • Facilitating
  • Teaching
  • Speaking

When I was creating my list I noticed that never once did I think of using these gifts or talents within an organization, but rather from outside of an organization. This is when I began to imagine myself as a consultant or facilitator of change. The image that always came up for me was of assisting others – individuals and organizations to achieve their goals. Perhaps I was beginning to see myself as a kind of success coach?

  • My next step was to further develop my non-profit organization by inviting colleagues I respected to serve as advisors for the organization. In 2010 we spent three days together in a retreat-like setting defining our goals and listening to each other’s hopes and dreams not only for their own lives but for humanity as well. From this dialogue, we generated and defined concrete goals that ultimately became a grant which was funded in 2011. The grant provided funds for several of us to work on creating an online curriculum for individuals and small cohorts that supported personal transformation and organizational change.
  • I used the Internet to help me achieve my goals. I was able to find out about deadlines and entrance requirements for the California Institute of Integral Studies’ doctoral program by searching their website.

In 2011, I enrolled in the California Institute of Integral Studies’ doctoral program on transformative studies with Dr. Riane Eisler, author[CH5] of the seminal work The Real Wealth of Nations. Although this educational step was very costly ($16,000 per year), I felt that I needed a Ph.D. to legitimize my consulting work. Through my involvement in this program – the people I met, the books I read, and the opportunities that came my way because of this step – I look back upon spending this amount of money as one of the best investments I’ve ever made.

Before entering the doctoral program I interviewed Riane Eisler and talk with her about my goals. From this phone interview, I learned that I was one of thousands of people around the world who saw themselves as “stewards of change.” Her words of encouragement gave me more confidence to enroll in the educational program.

Results of My Research and Redefinition of Success:[CH6]

What did I learn about myself through this process as it relates to success? Perhaps most importantly I learned that I had allowed my dreams to sit unformed in my heart only to be noticed as occasional stirrings of passion or sadness. The process that the class took me through in 2010 to definen defining success literally forced me to move beyond “my unfinished life” to one where I felt I was risking, more alive, and daring to dream. What I learned most about success and what it means to me are perhaps spoken by author Marianne Williamson in her book Return to Love:

Our deepest fear is not thatwe are inadequate.Our deepest fear is thatwe are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness,that most frightens us.We ask ourselves,who am I to be brilliant,gorgeous, talented and fabulous?Actually, who are you not to be?You are a child of god.Your playing small doesn't serve the world.There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other peoplewon't feel insecure around you.We are born to manifest theglory of god that is within us.It is not just in some of us;it is in everyone.And as we let our own light shine,we unconsciously give otherpeople permission to do the same.As we are liberated from our ownfear, our presence automaticallyliberates others. (190-191).

Because of the “Speaking of Success” class of 2010, I am[CH7] living my success which I define as love expressed in action.

Works Cited

Bolles, Richard Nelson. What Color Is Your Parachute: A Practical Manual for Job-Hunters
and Career-Changers. Berkley: Ten Speed Press, 2001. Print.

Eisler, Riane. The Real Wealth of Nations: Creating a Caring Economics. San Francisco:
Berrett-Kohler, 2007. Print.

Williamson, Marianne. Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of “A Course in Miracles.”
New York: Harper Collins, 1992. Print.

Works Consulted

Eisler, Riane Ph.D. Telephone Interview. 17 July 2010.

"Transformative Studies(Online Program)". California Institute of Integral Studies.Web. 13 March 2010
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[CH1]The Essay Should Have a Title that Indicates it as YOUR SUCCESS ESSAY

[CH2]Topic Headings Should Be USED in THIS ESSAY

[CH3]This Section will go through the steps you have taken to “define success” as you have gone through this assignment.

[CH4]This end citation is necessary to put the page number for the book listed under Works Cited.

[CH5]This Author is Mentioned but not quoted directly so at the end of the paper, Jane put a Works Consulted list after the Works Cited one.

[CH6]Make this your last topic heading as you add the Results and re-definition of Success as you conclude this paper.

[CH7]